Our Mission:
[Updated mission here]
Who We Are/What We Do:
WWU Racing is a team of students with varying majors and skillsets, passionate about furthering our knowledge and passions by developing a formula style race car. WWU Racing aims to build a new car every academic year and compete with the newly built car at Formula SAE California at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA (see Competition for more information). Our engineers design, manufacture and test our car. Our business team focuses on acquiring donations, sponsors and participating in community events to to share our mission and work with others. To ensure reliability, competitiveness, and safety, our engineers use data driven justification for all design choices made on our cars.
Being a part of WWU Racing provides team members with acumen which they will carry on to the real world after graduation. Engineers learn hand fabrication, machining, CAD systems designing, simulations, and data analysis which helps to optimize our car. The business team learns and practices budgeting, management skills, marketing, and PR skills that transfer to any business environment. All of our team members, engineering and business, learn the importance of goal setting, time management and communication through all levels of the team. Our team works cohesively and holds each member accountable for their responsibilities. building reliability that is highly sought after in young professionals.
Competition:
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) hosts a competition known as Formula SAE (FSAE) which is part of SAE's Collegiate Design Series (CDS). The series was designed to help students graduate with greater vehicle design skill has been held for over 40 years. Western Washington University was one of the first few schools to participate in the series upon its inception. Multiple FSAE competition are held internationally each year, allowing students to test their engineering and business expertise. SAE provides safety and design rules that every team must follow. Although constraining, these rules still allow for innovative vehicle engineering and design.
FSAE cars are raced in autocross style scenarios, meaning the car must possess excellent handling, braking and acceleration capabilities. The car is built and judged as a possible production prototype, so it must be affordable to purchase and maintain. Therefore, engineers must choose materials that are durable, yet cheap to source and design the car for longevity and ease of maintenance.
WWU Racing proudly produces the vast majority of components in house. Although time consuming, developing parts in house saves our team precious resources and offer an unparalleled learning experience to our students. It also allows our team to gain an in depth understanding of the manufacturing process. Learning hand fabrication and machining skills are what our engineers will immediately use in the professional world.
Donation Usage:
Donations to the team are used to push our boundaries and take on new and ambitious projects. Among many things, the team developed a full aerodynamics package for this year's car, which included composite work with carbon fiber and 3D printed parts from carbon nylon. The money we use help us in all phases of our year, including manufacturing, testing, and competing. The experience WWU Racing offers is truly supplementary to any student's educational career.
How Your Donation Helps:
While we are a club on campus, WWU Racing is run like a business. It must make money to spend money. The team must raise all their own funds to not only build a race car every year, but to also help build the team. These funds come from local sponsors, community outreach, events, donations, grants, and from within Western Washington University. Every dollar that is given to the team goes directly to allowing a student to build a part of the car or the team, better preparing them for the real world. Each member of the team will use this money to get real word experience in a safe, and nurturing space, that allows them to push their own limits without the fear of consequence if a mistake is made.
